Cleanup of computer

Hi,

I want to cleanup a Windows XP computer that has become rather slow. I
already ran defrag. What can I do more and how?

Thanks.

"Huub" said this in news item
ll.nl...
Hi,

I want to cleanup a Windows XP computer that has become rather slow. I
already ran defrag. What can I do more and how?

Thanks.

Defrag won't make much of a difference but weeding out the many unnecessary
startup tasks visible in msconfig.exe will. Remember also that your virus
scanner can place a big burden on your CPU, as can a third-party firewall
such as ZoneAlarm.

On 05 Feb 2010 08:33:02 GMT, Huub wrote:

Hi,

I want to cleanup a Windows XP computer that has become rather slow. I
already ran defrag. What can I do more and how?

Thanks.

How full is the Hard Drive?

If it's too full it can cause slow down as your swap file space gets
eaten up.

If you're comfortable with it I'd back up what you want to keep and
format the HD and reinstall Windows. Just remember to have all your
installation CDs ready and your Windows Key at hand.

--
The Zero ST

On 05 Feb 2010 08:33:02 GMT, Huub wrote:

Hi,

I want to cleanup a Windows XP computer that has become rather slow. I
already ran defrag. What can I do more and how?

Thanks.

Have a look here
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Huub wrote:
Hi,

I want to cleanup a Windows XP computer that has become rather slow. I
already ran defrag. What can I do more and how?

Here are the usual causes of sluggishness:

1. Malicious software (malware). You need to rule this out first! This
page has excellent information:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...iruses_Malware

2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton
and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply
use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other
programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive each
time you boot up. Fortunately, there are other antimalware programs
available that use far fewer resources (e.g., NOD32, Avast, and Avira).

3. Too many of certain types of programs always running in the
background -- with or without your knowledge. (Then again, many programs
that run in the background have trivial consequences.)

To determine every program and process you are currently running, use
the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Processes tab. You should
be able to sort by CPU usage or Memory usage to get a good ideas which
ones are the resource/memory hogs. You should write down the names of
all the processes for future detective work (or take a snapshot and
print it out).

Use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn how to
configure them not to always run at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup...p#THE_PROGRAMS
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Taskl...s/tasklist.htm

Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs to
not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb963902.aspx

But before you do this, you should use the preference settings of the
program in question. Otherwise, for some programs, they will return to
the startup list anyway!

If you do wish to use msconfig, it may be accessed this way:

Start | Run | type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) | Enter (or
OK)

4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the pagefile. A
quick way to determine if this is happening is to open Task Manager
(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note the three values
under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit,
and Peak.

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
In case you want to explore this further, you may run Page File Monitor
for Windows XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode
didn't change from DMA to PIO:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/i...while-copying/

and

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduc...duck/udma_fix/

On 05 Feb 2010 08:33:02 GMT, Huub wrote:


I want to cleanup a Windows XP computer that has become rather slow. I
already ran defrag. What can I do more and how?


There are several possibilities as to what your problem is, but the
most likely one these days is malware infection. What anti-virus and
anti-spyware programs do you run? Are they kept up to date?


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

"Pegasus [MVP]" écrivait
:



"Huub" said this in news item
ll.nl...
Hi,

I want to cleanup a Windows XP computer that has become rather slow.
I already ran defrag. What can I do more and how?

Thanks.

Defrag won't make much of a difference but weeding out the many
unnecessary startup tasks visible in msconfig.exe will. Remember also
that your virus scanner can place a big burden on your CPU, as can a
third-party firewall such as ZoneAlarm.



I run ZA Pro security suite on 2 XP and one Seven computer and there is no
annoying slowdown caused by it.

On Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:33:02 +0000, Huub wrote:

Hi,

I want to cleanup a Windows XP computer that has become rather slow. I
already ran defrag. What can I do more and how?

Thanks.

Thank you for all your replies.

I will do a spy/malware run on the computer and check the msconfig.

On 05 Feb 2010 20:29:00 GMT, Huub wrote:

On Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:33:02 +0000, Huub wrote:

Hi,

I want to cleanup a Windows XP computer that has become rather slow. I
already ran defrag. What can I do more and how?

Thanks.

Thank you for all your replies.


You're welcome. Glad to help.



I will do a spy/malware run on the computer



But you didn't answer my questions. What anti-virus and anti-spyware
programs do you run? Are they kept up to date?

All Anti-virus and anti-spyware programs are very far from being
equally good. Just because one of each doesn't find anything doesn't
mean that you are free of infections.



and check the msconfig.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

On Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:48:09 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote:

But you didn't answer my questions. What anti-virus and anti-spyware
programs do you run? Are they kept up to date?

I have a slow down and slow startup problem too. I've eliminate a
couple of items from my startup and even cleaned up my desktop (which
actually helped a tiny bit). I just finished looking at
start run services.msc and put some items on manual that had been
automatic, but my tower is still laboring noisily at the moment.

All Anti-virus and anti-spyware programs are very far from being
equally good. Just because one of each doesn't find anything doesn't
mean that you are free of infections.

I use AVG and Ad-Aware. Both are free versions.



and check the msconfig.

Done.

There was nothing odd that I could tell, but I'm not a computer
expert. I'm wondering if I should run Hijack This and post to a
forum?

My other problem is that I will get a "server busy" error message
notification (not every time, but way too often) when using a
hyperlink in email that should open the link in my browser.
"Messenger" is on automatic, if that helps.

If you have any ideas or feedback, I would appreciate it.

TIA

--
I love cooking with wine.
Sometimes I even put it in the food.

On Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:50:53 -0800, sf wrote:

On Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:48:09 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote:

But you didn't answer my questions. What anti-virus and anti-spyware
programs do you run? Are they kept up to date?

I have a slow down and slow startup problem too. I've eliminate a
couple of items from my startup and even cleaned up my desktop (which
actually helped a tiny bit). I just finished looking at
start run services.msc and put some items on manual that had been
automatic, but my tower is still laboring noisily at the moment.

All Anti-virus and anti-spyware programs are very far from being
equally good. Just because one of each doesn't find anything doesn't
mean that you are free of infections.

I use AVG and Ad-Aware. Both are free versions.


Not terrible, but not the best products. If you want to stay with
freeware products, I recommend changing from AVG to either Avast or
Avira, and either replacing AdAware with *both* MalwareBytes
Anti-Malware and SuperAntiSpyware (or keeping AdAware and adding those
two to your aarsenal).


and check the msconfig.

Done.

There was nothing odd that I could tell, but I'm not a computer
expert. I'm wondering if I should run Hijack This and post to a
forum?

My other problem is that I will get a "server busy" error message
notification (not every time, but way too often) when using a
hyperlink in email that should open the link in my browser.
"Messenger" is on automatic, if that helps.

If you have any ideas or feedback, I would appreciate it.

TIA

--
I love cooking with wine.
Sometimes I even put it in the food.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

If I turn all process to manual and not automatic; can this cause any
problems? Should spyware/malware detecting programs always be on automatic?
Anything else?

It's good I read this. I am getting the same thing, and trying to turn off
(or down) all the process taking the ram and cpu. This is helpful.

On Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:04:46 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote:

Not terrible, but not the best products. If you want to stay with
freeware products,

Oh, yes... always free. I don't use my computer for business so
buying those things are not a write off for me.

I recommend changing from AVG to either Avast or Avira,

Funny you would say that, because I've used both in the past. What
makes them better than AVG in your opinion? Do they scan email and
web pages too?

and either replacing AdAware with *both* MalwareBytes
Anti-Malware and SuperAntiSpyware (or keeping AdAware and adding those
two to your aarsenal).

Thanks for those tips, because they are new products to me. They
won't conflict with each other and slow me down? I'm not very
impressed with Ad-Aware in its new form, so I was going to look around
anyway. Do you think I need a registry cleaner too, if so which one?


--
I love cooking with wine.
Sometimes I even put it in the food.

On Fri, 5 Feb 2010 18:40:01 -0800, Brian V
wrote:

If I turn all process to manual and not automatic; can this cause any
problems? Should spyware/malware detecting programs always be on automatic?
Anything else?

It's good I read this. I am getting the same thing, and trying to turn off
(or down) all the process taking the ram and cpu. This is helpful.

I can tell you one thing for sure. If you fiddle with local services,
keep messenger turned on - it's not an IM type messenger.

--
I love cooking with wine.
Sometimes I even put it in the food.

On Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:22:37 -0800, sf wrote:

On Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:04:46 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote:

Not terrible, but not the best products. If you want to stay with
freeware products,

Oh, yes... always free. I don't use my computer for business so
buying those things are not a write off for me.

I recommend changing from AVG to either Avast or Avira,

Funny you would say that, because I've used both in the past. What
makes them better than AVG in your opinion?


Less intrusive and catch more things.


Do they scan email and


Scanning e-mail is totally unnecessary. They can do it, but I
recommend turning off that feature.


web pages too?

and either replacing AdAware with *both* MalwareBytes
Anti-Malware and SuperAntiSpyware (or keeping AdAware and adding those
two to your aarsenal).

Thanks for those tips, because they are new products to me. They
won't conflict with each other and slow me down?


Run one at a time.


I'm not very
impressed with Ad-Aware in its new form, so I was going to look around
anyway. Do you think I need a registry cleaner too, if so which one?



No! Avoid all registry cleaners like the plague!

Registry cleaning programs are *all* snake oil. Cleaning of the
registry isn't needed and is dangerous. Leave the registry alone and
don't use any registry cleaner. Despite what many people think, and
what vendors of registry cleaning software try to convince you of,
having unused registry entries doesn't really hurt you.

The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneously
removing an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefit
it may have.

Read http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000643.html



--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
Please Reply to the Newsgroup